Jesus had a lot of power. But it was upside down power.
It was different. He would literally flip the individual over into a completely different state. In this session we will look at one of the major miracles that Jesus did, which was curing people of various diseases.
But let’s go up from the different levels to show his power.
Level 1 : Jesus heals a leper by just touching him
A leper were people who had leprosy. It was a skin disorder. They were considered unclean. They were to be away from the camp. If they did come near you, they had to let you know. Now, if one manages to touch you, you yourself may get leprosy.
So here is a man that comes towards Jesus with leprosy. Have a look at what happens.
The man knew Jesus had the power to make hm well. I’m not sure if he realised what he was going to do though.
Imagine Jesus friends watching this.
“Jesus! If you touch this leper he will make you unclean. His uncleanness will trump your cleanness!”
That’s what they were worried about. But that didn’t happen. Jesus jut touched him and his cleanness trumped the leper’s uncleanness.
Let’s go up another level.
Level 2 : Jesus heals a woman without even knowing about it
In a crowd there was this woman with a discharge of blood. She sees Jesus and concocts a plan. She thought that if she just “touched” Jesus her suffering would go away.
Did you notice that power ?
She barely touched his clothes,
and her bleeding stopped instantly.
Jesus wasn’t even aware of it whilst it was going on. He says , “Who touched me? I felt power come out of me.” Jesus can heal diseases without even being aware of it.
Ready for the next level?
Level 3 : Jesus heals a paralytic man by telling him to “get up”.
Usually, if your legs are not working at all, you still that way. The friends wanted Jesus to heal him, but there were too many people around. So they went through the roof and lowered him down.
This is crazy power. This man’s legs were not sore, or bruised. They could not work anymore. But Jesus just looks at him and says, “get up”. The man, instantly, gets up and goes home, walking.
Ohh, this is just the beginning of Jesus’ power.
Level 4 : Jesus heals a man’s servant without being there
The people want Jesus to go help this centurion. They want him to come to his house and lay his hands on him. In other words, the people knew that Jesus could heal the guy, but they also thought that Jesus needed to be present in order to do it.
Is not this power? Jesus doesn’t need to wave his hand or touch someone. He can do it wherever he wants. Jesus just heals the guy remotely.
So there’s a snippet of the different healings Jesus could do. There’s many more. But the point I wanted to show you is that Jesus is an upside down king with upside down power.
But here’s an interesting thing I want to draw your attention to. In the manner of their healing, this is true of all of them:
It makes me think of the game “Freeze”. If someone touches you. You are stuck. You become frozen. That’s the view that many people had of certain diseases. They spread, you cannot contain it.
But when Jesus comes on the scene, and you touch him, he does the exact opposite. He is the one that pushes back diseases. His cleanness trumps our uncleanness.
But there is a deeper level going on here. Before you say to me, “Hey, I don’t have leprosy or blood discharges or diseases like this. This doesn’t apply to me.” Actually it really does.
See, we all have a disease problem. And this is far greater than a fever or a cold or leprosy. It’s called sin. When sin comes towards someone, it engulfs them.
Well, what about Jesus? Can he trump sin?
His whole mission was to be about that. He came in order to deal with our greatest disease. Jesus hasn’t come to heal healthy people, but people who are unhealthy.
Real disease and real sickness is actually sin. Jesus will deal with that at the cross.
But there are many more levels of Jesus power we need to look at.
Are you ready?
